De Anima Vampira
by Andromache
Summary: Death pays them a visit - to taunt them or to get his arse beat?
1. Prologue

De Anima Vampira  
by Andromache  
  
I have not yet seen any fanfiction of this nature but hey I could be wrong.   
Legal Stuff: Capcom owns Alucard and Maria. Streamline or Urban-Vision Entertainment owns D, Doris, and Dan. Please do not sue me. I am a college student and will therefore be selling my soul to pay my loans after graduation because I have no money. However, the blood of my first born child is still up for grabs.  
  
  
Here goes.  
  
______________________________________________________________________  
Some ten thousand years in the future.....  
  
The valley was sunny and clear for the first time in, well, no one actually remembers when. The castle of Count Magnus Lee had always stood, a foreboding structure, at the edge of the valley. It had overlooked the tiny village with a strangely hungry countenance. The people of the village were fearful of the wrath of the Count even when he did not occupy his massive, enhcanted castle. When he returned to the valley to live in the castle again, people felt the noticeable chill in the air.   
  
Fifty years ago, the Count seduced a mortal female and bit her, earning her a place in the internment camp. They called it the isolation camp. It was the same thing really. When he found out about the girl's removal from the village, he went on a rampage and killed fifty people or so when the coroner finished counting the bodies.   
  
Recently, it began again. The Count bit another girl, named Doris Lang, and she sought out the help of a vampire hunter instead of passively awaiting the Count's advances. She also refused to go to the internment camp. She put all of her faith in the abilities of the vampire hunter.  
  
He did not let her down. The vampire hunter slew the ancient Count, and the castle of Count Magnus Lee crumbled into a chasm in the earth. Days and night flashed backward in the sky, and eventually the perpetual chill and the darkness left the valley. Children were no longer afraid to play outside. People still wore their crosses around their necks, but it was for their own faith instead of for protection against the minions of the Count. They were free to live normal lives again.  
  
Doris and her younger brother, Dan, bade farewell to the vampire hunter as they watched him ride out of the town, having accomplished the task of ending the reign of the Count. They would certainly miss him and told him to come back as soon as he could.  
  
It turns out that "soon as he could" would turn into "he had to".  
______________________________________________________________________  
Backtrack to 1796.....  
  
  
Maria Renard watched Castlevania vanish once again from the mortal plain. Dracula was dead by the hand of his own son, Alucard. Richter Belmont, her brother-in-law, had disappeared from his home a year ago, and she tracked him to this demonic castle. She met Alucard while searching Castlevania for signs of Richter. The dhampire son of the legendary, infamous Dracula had inadvertently captured her heart. His devotion and his undeniably winsome, delicate, and pale looks caused her to greet him with bated breath every time she encontered him in the vast castle.  
  
Now, he sought to leave her and crawl back to wherever he had come from and sleep for the rest of eternity. His shame about his lineage weighed heavily on his conscience. The sins of the father to be visited on the son. Even Job, in all of his misery over the game that the devil had played with his life, called for the father to be punished. The children of the sinner were not to be held accountable, for they had not done anything.   
  
Maria watched helplessly as Alucard, her newfound love, dashed off into the night. She heard Richter's voice ring out behind her.   
  
"You're in love with him, aren't you?" The words sounded oddly prophetic.  
  
She turned to face her brother-in-law. Maria sadly nodded.  
  
Richter smiled and said, "Then go after him."  
  
Maria's face brightened, and she yelled back as she began her pursuit of the dhampire, "Thanks, Richter! I will find him!"  
  
Her feet glided over the ground, barely touching it, as she euphorically chased Alucard. His supernatural speed was difficult to follow, but Maria saw his tracks. It was easy to pick out the imprints of his bootheels in the soft ground. She dodged large, moss laden trees and the occasional small animal and leaped over fallen logs much the same as Alucard's path dictated that he had done so. After a great deal of ground had been covered, she saw a small marble mausoleum built into the side of a hill. The door was slightly ajar, allowing some of the darkness within the mausoleum to seep out.  
  
Maria slowed her pace and softly crept to the open door. There was a smudged inscription in some ancient language on the door, but she did not know the language that the inscription was written in. She pushed the door inwards and saw Alucard in the first stages of the slumber of the vampire. He looked peaceful yet regal in his silken and leather clothing as he lay in an opened, satin lined casket. His hair, the color of the moonlight, draped over his resting form and covered him in pale ribbons.   
  
She silently walked up to the casket as not to wake him before she intended to. Maria placed her gloved right hand on his shoulder and stroked his hair. It was so soft, but she had a mission to accomplish.   
  
Shaking his shoulder, Maria called softly, "Alucard, wake up. It's me, Maria Renard. You do remember me, do you not? We just met recently. We found each other in Castlevania. Oh, please, do wake up."  
  
After much of her energy had been exerted by her pursuit and now attempting to wake Alucard, Maria decided to lay down in the casket with Alucard. She settled herself so that her head was pillowed by his left shoulder and she could hear his hear beating in his chest. Maria drifted into a deep sleep as she listened to the reassuring pattern of Alucard's heartbeat.  
  
The door closed as if by magic. Its inscription read:  
  
O neanias tou basileous katheudei toutoou oikoou monous. Ei kathes toutoou, an aei zaas.  
  
For us, this can be translated. From the ancient Greek, the inscription is:  
  
Only the son of the king sleeps in this house. If you should sleep here, then you should live forever.  
______________________________________________________________________  
  
  
Time passed for the sleeping pair. One hundred years later, Dracula awoke without the aid of a summon and conceived with a mortal woman, who reminded him much of Lisa, Alucard's mother, the dhampiric child that would grow up to become a vampire hunter. He had his mother's dark hair and eye color, but his father's features shown through in the boy's height and aristocratic bearing. The sentient symbiote in his hand did not hurt to remind him of his parentage either.  
  
The child learned soon after that he was an immortal as was his father and any siblings that he had. He outlived his parents, never looking more than twenty five to thirty years of age. He outlived the nuclear holocaust that brought the world into its current state of being. Certainly, the birth pangs were terrible, but the world seemed better for it.  
  
D, as he was known, roamed the earth ten thousand years after his birth and slayed vampiric lords who preyed on the weak mortals that they ruled in various forms of tyranny. His most recent kill was the vicious Count Magnus Lee. The Count had terrorized a tiny village and a girl in particular. Lee was no longer a threat to the village, but the girl was a threat to D's concentration. Her bravery and willingness to love a man like himself, a demonic shadow of a human, crept into his thoughts more often than was comfortable, especially with a symbiote monitoring his every move.  
  
"Come on, D, she offered herself to you! You want to settle down with a woman that loves you, and yet you won't take the opportunity," his hand jeered from beneath the leather glove that covered it.   
  
D responded in his usual minimalist style, "Be quiet."  
  
The symbiote snorted, "How can you love someone anyway? You suppose yourself to be an evil dhampire and that your bloodline is cursed."  
  
After a moment had passed, the symbiote remarked, "That felt like it had been said before."  
  
"Perhaps it had."  
  
As D rode on his cyborg horse, he lost himself in thought. Even when he reached the next town, he could barely concentrate on the task at hand of seeking shelter for the night. The only thing that aroused his interest was the conversation of a few men in the tavern below the inn.  
  
The first man said, "Hey, Greg, did you hear the latest about that little village to the south of us?"  
  
D froze. That was Doris' village.  
  
"You mean the one that Lee ruled?" the one named Greg asked.  
  
"Yeah, that's the one. Apparently another castle just appeared out of nowhere in the ridge just outside of the valley. A whole bunch of monsters have shown up and are keeping the villagers locked inside their houses scared stiff."  
  
"How are they faring? I mean, they are not going to last much longer without some outside help."  
  
"They seem to have enough food for now, but they have to hurry back before the sun sets if they went to the next town over for food. Only one person has been brave enough to do even that much. I tell you, that Lang girl is really something."  
  
Doris was in danger, D realized. The castle probably held another vampire bent on the destruction of the village...and of Doris. Much to the surprise of the innkeeper, D abruptly turned about and left the inn. He entered the stable where his horse was kept, saddled it, mounted it, and urged the horse to a fast gallop towards Doris' village before the hand could get out a smart-mouthed crack about Doris and his devotion to her.  
  
The wind bit at his face as D raced towards the village. He would not reach it until morning even at this hellish pace. He hoped that Doris would be safe until then.  
______________________________________________________________________  
In the ancient mausoleum....  
  
Alucard stirred from his sleep. The world was far different than the one in which he had gone to sleep. Birds were silent, and their noises were replaced with strange chirpings and other oddities. He shifted his body a bit and realized that something lay on top of him. Craning his head, he saw that it was Maria. The girl apparently followed him and most likely had died while sleeping with him. A moment passed, and Alucard discovered that he was wrong. Maria's body rose and fell with her breath.   
  
She was alive. Impossibly alive. Alucard sensed that a great amount of time had passed and thought that it was impossible for Maria to have lived this long normally. That was the key word then. Normally. Some magic allowed her to live as long as he did.  
  
He raised himself up on one elbow and touched Maria's face with his free hand.  
  
"Wake up, Maria," Alucard whispered.  
  
Her eyelids fluttered open, revealing a beautiful shade of cornflower blue. She yawned and murmured, "How is it that it works for you and not for me?"  
  
Alucard smiled gently and said, "I guess you tried to wake me, Mari-ka, but it did not work because I was already quite asleep, and a dhampire's slumber is only interrupted by one thing: the reappearance of Castlevania."  
  
Sitting up beside him, Maria gasped, "It has returned!"  
  
Sinking back down and closing his eyes, Alucard sighed and said, "Yes, it has."  
______________________________________________________________________  
  
What do you think so far? I always wanted to see what happened if D and Alucard ever met since they are half-brothers. (Dracula, that slut.)   
On a side note: The inscription above really is in Ancient Greek. It has been Anglicized for mine own reasons.   
  
Andromache 


	2. Chapter 1

De Anima Vampira  
Chapter 1  
by Andromache  
  
Disclaimer a-go-go:  
  
I do not own the characters (D, Doris, Dan, the symbiote, Alucard, Maria, and this particular incarnation of Dracula) that are portrayed herein. I am a college student majoring liberal arts, and therefore have no money even if someone were to sue me. You may have the blood of my firstborn if you like.  
  
______________________________________________________________________  
  
Sometime in the far distant future, say, 12,090 A.D. Ish.  
  
Alucard raised himself up and got out of the coffin. Maria still sat on its satin lining. He stretched his stiffened muscles and brushed the dust of ten thousand years of sleep from his clothes, which by now were in a state of decay. Even if Alucard lived forever, his clothing would not.  
  
Maria had the same problem. However she had worn much less clothing than Alucard and so was in a slightly worse situation. Her dress was barely held together by its stitches. Alucard still had some semblance of a nobleman while Maria was very close to resembling a common whore rather than the adventurous girl that had followed her heart and woken ten millenia later in a state of decaying undress.  
  
Maria, surprised, screamed as a large piece of material from her skirt fell from her waist onto the satin lining.   
  
Raising a delicate eyebrow, Alucard remarked, "I think that it is best that we find a town near here and purchase new garments. We both need them."   
  
Maria nodded her assent. She only hoped that her clothing would hold together until they found a town.   
  
She also swung her legs over the lip of the casket and stood on the stone ground of the mausoleum. Her bootleather was cracking and splitting, and she counted herself lucky that the boots themselves had not completely rotted away.  
  
Maria glanced at Alucard and said, "I doubt that you are in much better shape. For the son of a nobleman, vampire or not, you hardly look the part now." She gestured to the moth-eaten cloak around Alucard's shoulders. His vest and breeches were also victims of time's ravages.  
They also bore the marks of moth bites and fading from the age of the fabric.   
  
Maria swore that she thought that she had heard him reply, "Point taken." as he opened the door of the mausoleum and exited out into the world that had changed so much since she had last seen it.  
  
Dawn no longer had rosy-tipped fingers that touched the sky above. Her fingers were now stained purple and green as they swept across the morning sky. The brilliant sky faded into the darkness that permanently gathered around Castlevania. Tendrils of black mist reached into the sky, seemingly grasping at Dawn's hand. The mist appeared to be alive from their vantagepoint which was clear now because the dense forest that had been there before had completely disappeared. Not even a tree stump marked its passing.  
  
The demonic castle leered at them from across the valley. Inbetween them and the castle lay a small village. Castlevania seemed ready to devour the little town. Maria felt that it was her responsibility along with Alucard to prevent that from happening.  
  
Alucard broke the silence first.  
  
"That town will do. We can gather supplies and watch my father from there."  
  
Maria softly echoed, "Indeed."  
  
______________________________________________________________________  
  
Stars faintly disappear in the light of Dawn. Another unnatural star streaked along the ground with the blazing sun rising on his left.   
  
He urged his unnatural horse faster and faster, hoping to beat a ghostly devil that vaporized in the light of the sun.   
  
The symbiote cried out although muffled by the glove on his left hand, "D! Slow down. Whatever, if anything at all has happened to Doris, has already happened this night. The monsters cannot survive the sunlight."  
  
D knew that, but it did not comfort him in the slightest. His only response as Doris' village came into view was to grip the reins harder in his hands and stifle the symbiote. Satisfactorily, the symbiote gave a yelp of pain as the leather was pressed onto its face. D hardly paid attention to the pair of a long, pale blonde-haired man and brunette female, both in tattered clothing, who also walked in the same direction as D was traveling. The vampire hunter galloped past the other pair without so much as a second thought. Doris was the primary worry in his secretive mind.  
______________________________________________________________________  
  
As the rider in a long cloak and swept-brim hat rode past them, Maria exclaimed, "Alucard, did you see that as well as I did? That horse was made of metal!"  
  
Alucard nodded and said, "I told you that much time had passed since the time that I fell asleep. I suppose that there has been much in the way of progress with regard to technical matters."  
  
Maria shook her head in amazement. So much had changed.   
  
They continued to the village and heard upon their arrival the shouts of the villagers. Some were quite vocal about the situation at hand.  
  
One man shouted over the din of voices, "Why do we not act now? The vampire is surely asleep, and we can kill him then!"  
  
A second one replied in a calm voice, in fact the same man who had rode past Maria and Alucard earlier that morning, "The vampire's minions do not sleep as their master does in the daytime. Going into the castle now would be suicidal for anyone who does not know what they are doing."  
  
Turning to face the presumed mayor of the village, the man with long, dark hair and indigo cloak asked, "Do you or anyone else here know who the vampire is?"  
  
A young woman with blonde pigtails spoke up, "No. The castle appeared only recently, and we have no way of finding out who is its master." Beside the girl was a younger boy with short brown hair. he enthusiastically seconded his sister.   
  
"Sis is right," the boy said. "The monsters attack us, but there is nothing that tells us who rules them."  
  
The throng of villagers argued amongst themselves as Alucard and Maria entered their midst. Alucard announced after internally debating what to do about his father's ressurection, "I know who the vampire is."   
  
An uproar ensued. Some people shouted curses at him, wondering how this stranger knew. The other man, the rider of the metal horse, quelled them with a glance. He said to Alucard, "Sir, I am a vampire hunter. Tell me who this vampire is so that I may kill him."  
  
The villagers fell silent as the pale aristocrat continued, "The vampire is none other than the infamous Count Dracula."  
  
The crowd gasped. The one who had announced himself as a vampire hunter asked, "That is impossible. Dracula is dead and has been for over ten thousand years. How do you kow that this vampire is indeed Dracula?"   
  
Alucard answered, "I know this because that is Castlevania, the home of Dracula."  
  
The vampire hunter inquired further, "How do you know that, stranger?"  
  
"I was raised in that castle. I am Dracula's son."  
  
Cries of "Dhampire!" rose from the crowd. The reception of the villagers was typical, similar to the reaction of mortals when Alucard was growing up ten millenia earlier. The blonde girl cast a quick glance at the vampire hunter and quieted her fellow villagers with her next statement. She said, "Quiet, all of you! Tell me, sir, what is your name?"  
  
Alucard replied, "I was named Adrian Farenheights Tepes. I am called Alucard, which is 'Dracula' spelled backwards, because I am the polar opposite of my father. This is Maria Renard."  
  
The girl introduced herself, "I am Doris Lang. The boy beside me is my brother, Dan, and the vampire hunter is known as D."  
  
D. That is how his father signed his correspondences when Alucard was living with his parents within Castlevania. Alucard shuddered.   
  
Maria addressed herself to Doris and said, "We can help you if you decide to attack Dracula. Both of us have been inside Castlevania before and at least have an idea of its layout. Alucard here I know has defeated his father at least once."  
  
Doris agreed, "Yes. I think that we would need all the help that we can get."  
  
The villager that Alucard and Maria heard shouting first upon their entrance into the village shouted again, "You people can deal with Dracula! I'm moving!"   
  
Doris replied to the man's retreating back, "Do that then. Be a coward."  
  
Facing Alucard and Maria, she said, "Come with me back to my house. You can take shelter there."  
  
Maria thanked her and asked, "Do you know where we can procure some new garments. I am afraid that ours did not stand the test of time."  
  
Noticing the decaying state of the pair's clothing, Doris replied, "I have extra clothing at my house. I am sure that we can arrange something there."  
  
"Alright then."  
  
Dan piped up, "D, what does this mean? I have heard of Dracula, and I know that he is an evil creature, but what about his son? Does that mean that Alucard is evil too?"  
  
After considering his own parentage, D answered in a subdued tone, "Not necessarily, Dan."  
  
______________________________________________________________________  
  
A/N: Now the half-brothers have met officially though D is the only one to have put it together, considering the fact that he was born while Alucard and Maria were sleeping. I would to thank those who have reviewed with such positive responses and such haste after I posted the story. I love you guys.  
  
Andromache. 


	3. Chapter 2

De Anima Vampira  
Chapter 2 (with a slight revision)  
by Andromache  
  
Dislaimer and other such legal muck:  
  
I do not own a single character in this fic. Not a one. Unless you count the ubiquitous villager or monster. Other than that, nothing. Alucard, Maria, and this incarnation of Dracula belong to Konami, not Capcom as I said mistakenly in the last chapter. D, Doris, and Dan belong to Streamline and Urban Vision. So there.  
  
On with the "show"! (Warning: One nasty word and suggested nudity. As if you would not expect that with Maria and Alucard getting new clothes.)  
_____________________________________________________________________  
  
  
Doris motioned for Maria and Alucard to follow her to the wagon that she had brought to the village. Dan lagged behind them, supposedly in deep conversation with the silent vampire hunter. Arriving at the wagon which was pulled by yet another metal horse, this one a golden color, Doris gestured to the back of the wagon, already holding several sacks of feed and supplies for the house, and said, "You can ride in here. I know that it is not much, but we do not have enough horses to divide between us."  
  
Maria returned warmly, "This will be fine. I think that we can survive." She climbed into the back of the wagon and sat gently on a bench that was built into one of the interior sides of the wagon as not to rip her tattered green dress further.   
  
Dan caught up with them as D went to retrieve the reins of his own cyborg horse. He also climbed into the wagon and sat down beside Maria on the wooden bench. Both looked expectantly at Alucard, who merely placed the bulkier weapons that he had hidden on his body. The relics that protected him from harm stayed secure and out of sight of the rest of the group.   
  
D mounted his horse and rode at a walk over to Doris' wagon and waited as well for the other dhampire to get into the wagon so that they could travel to the house and temporary base of operations. What D and everybody else failed to realize was that Alucard had certain abilities that not even Maria had seen. The pale dhampire shifted from his human form to his wolf form in a matter of seconds and amidst the surprised cries of the group and some lingering villagers who promptly ran when they saw what Alucard had become.  
  
Alucard bristled his fur to show his indignation to the spectacle.  
  
As soon as she could regain her composure, Doris shrugged her shoulders and urged the the metal horse hitched to the wagon to trot forward towards the house. Maria and Dan retained their shocked looks while D and the symbiote shared a single thought that they did not disagree upon: "How come I/ you can't do that?"  
  
The journey was wordless. Hoofbeats from the two cyborg horses and the breath of Alucard in wolf form filled the chilly winter air. The hard ground passed quickly beneath their feet until they reached the outer gates of the Lang property. Doris dismounted from the wagon and pressed a series of numeric codes to gain entry into the property. When the gates opened, Doris mounted the wagon again, took the reins, and led them to the stable area.  
  
D dismounted and removed the saddle and blanket from his horse and placed the tack on the bar in front of the stall where he would next lead his horse into. Maria and Dan left the bench that they had sat on during the ride and jumped down off of the wagon, causing another piece of material to loosen from Maria's clothing. She gave a small shriek of surprise at the amount of skin that was now showing. Her shoulders were almost completely visible which meant that she now had to use her hands to prevent her bust from being revealed.   
  
Dan blushed as he kneeled to the ground and picked up the errant scrap of aged green clothing, gasping when the scrap disintegrated in his hand.   
  
"Oh my!" Maria nervously laughed, holding her arms across her chest. She was more than a little embarassed that she was losing her clothing at seemingly every step of the way. Dan only blushed more furiously.  
  
Alucard changed out of his wolf form and returned to his human form. The change was not kind to his clothing either. Only the barest covering was afforded by Alucard's formerly rich clothing.   
  
Doris cleared her throat and said in a clear voice, standing before the pair from the eighteenth century, "Why don't we go into the house and get you some new clothes? I am sure that I have something that will fit you, Maria. For Alucard, we may have to improvise."  
  
Alucard drew his cloak around him and replied, "I am sure that I will be able to withstand whatever I must wear, Miss Lang."  
  
"Such a stoic, Alucard," Maria said airily as she followed carefully behind Doris into what she supposed was the main house. She walked up the porch steps with caution, fearing that the slightest motion would cause more fabric to disintegrate. Dan followed shortly afterwards, asking Maria what a stoic was and leaving the two dhampires outside in the morning sunlight.   
  
Their eyes met for a moment, light gold staring into deep brown, and the contact was broken. Alucard sensed something...strange behind D's gaze, as if the vampire hunter knew something that he wanted to tell Alucard but hesitated to do so. Whatever it was Alucard was certain that the other man would confess it sooner or later. He tightened his grip on his threadbare black cloak and entered the house.  
  
D lingered a moment outside in thought, and the symbiote took the opportunity to speak its mind.  
  
"So you have an older brother now, D? Oh, I mean half-brother. You do not share the same mother obviously. Look at him. Golden eyes and pale hair. The very countenance of an angel, I say. And you....Well, you are yourself. Now, I have to wonder. Which one of you is the bastard, or are you both bastard get of Dracula?" The symbiote laughed a little sound of derision.   
  
"Be quiet," was D's only reply as he entered the house as well.  
  
His boots echoed on the hard, wooden floor of the house as he moved to sit down on the couch in the living room, the very couch on which a short time earlier he had slept in service of Doris against Count Lee. The plush blue cushioning gave way underneath his weight. The only comfort that he could take now was the fact that Dan was now interrogating Alucard instead of himself.  
  
He could hear the conversation that took place in the kitchen.  
  
Dan's bright, young voice carried over to D, "Alucard, are you really the son of Dracula?"  
  
Then came the reply: "Yes, I am."  
  
"Was your mother kidnapped and seduced like Sis almost was?"  
  
"Forgive my blasphemy, but good Lord! It was never like that. My mother, Lisa, caught my father. It was quite passionate from what I hear. They were deeply in love."  
  
"Really? That's not what it was like with Sis. The count bit her after she accidentally trespassed on his land, and when she refused to be his wife, he had his daughter kidnap her and bring her to the castle. If it wasn't for D, I would have been killed, and Sis would be the count's wife."  
  
Alucard replied pragmatically, "I am sure that you are quite thankful that she is no longer in danger, but that is not the way that my father and mother acted while they were in love. My mother caught my father's eye at a ball, and he courted her afterwards. They married, and some time later, I was born. After my mother was crucified by the local villagers for supposedly being a witch, my father hated humanity for it and vowed to destroy them."  
  
"Wow. I mean, that's why vampires hate humanity, isn't it?"  
  
"No, each vampire has his or her own reasons. Many of them consider humans to be below their station in life, forgetting that they were also mere mortals before they became vampires. Dhampires are the only creatures that are born with the powers of the vampire and the eternal life that goes along with it."   
  
"Hey, D!" Dan called, hurrying out of the kitchen. The young boy had lost none of his enthusiasm from D's previous visit to the Lang home. His dark brown eyes still sparkled with life and energy. D barely remembered when he had ever had that much energy in his own youth so long ago.   
  
"Yes, Dan?" D answered. He rested his hat on the hilt of his sword like he had done before and let his long, dark brown, almost black hair fall loose around his shoulders.   
  
"D, are you a dhampire?"  
  
The frankness of the question astounded D for a moment, but he recovered and answered, "Why do you ask, Dan?"  
  
"Well, Alucard told me that only dhampires are born with vampiric powers naturally, and I have seen you in the sunlight which means that you can't be a vampire. I saw you do some things while fighting the count that a human can't ever do. So, you must be a dhampire."  
  
D raised his eyes to meet Dan's earnest gaze and was about to reply when Doris and Maria came downstairs. Maria was now dressed in an emerald green vest that was tightened in the back to offer her the lost support of the corset that she wore in her other outfit. It was open above her bust and below as well, only using the buttons when absolutely necessary. A pair of loose fitting black pants completed her new outfit. The arrangement was very enticing and seductive. Alucard came out of the kitchen, still wrapped in his cloak, and was quite shocked at Maria's appearance. Certainly her clothing before had been provocative, but pants? and tight clothing that showed off that delectable figure? Outrageous.  
  
Maria turned around and showed off how the new outfit clung to her curves and seemed more comfortable in the provocative clothing than the now-completely disintegrated dress. Alucard cast his eyes down to the floorboards and let them remain there. He was starting to blush, an act unbefitting of his normal behavior. Not that it was noticeable or anything.   
  
Dan exclaimed in the only way that could possibly embarass Alucard even further, "Wow, Maria, you look really nice. Doesn't she, Alucard?"  
  
Alucard mumbled, "Yes, she certainly does." He wrapped his cloak even tighter around his body, possibly cutting off bloodflow.  
  
Doris chimed in, "Alucard, it's your turn now. All that I have in the way of men's clothing belonged to my father, so we may have to improvise."  
  
Alucard finally removed his gaze from the floor and answered Doris, "I am ready, then." He hoped as he followed Doris upstairs that his sudden surge of desire for Maria went unnoticed. How embarassing that would be.  
  
Doris led him to her bedroom and bade him to remove his cloak, coat, and shirt so that she could get some accurate measurements. She retrieved a tailor's tape and proceeded to measure Alucard's waist, inseam, legs, chest, shoulders, and other necessary areas. She left the room momentarily as she went to retrieve some of her father's clothing. Doris instructed him to remove the rest of his clothing while she was gone.   
  
Alucard obeyed and stood completely nude in the room while he waited, which was a very short time. It felt like an eternity until Doris opened the door slightly and threw in a pair of shiny black pants.   
  
Picking up the pants, Alucard asked, "What material is this? I have never seen it before."  
  
Muffled from behind the closed door, Doris answered, "It's a synthetic material called vinyl. It keeps the wearer very warm because it traps the wearer's body heat next to his body. My father wore it because it got very cold at night while hunting werewolves."  
  
"Ah."  
  
Alucard had a little difficulty pulling on the pants because it kept sticking to his pale skin. Once it was on, he discovered that it was quite comfortable and did indeed keep him warm. He called out to Doris when he was done, "You can come in now."  
  
Opening the door, Doris apologized, "I'm sorry, Alucard, but I only found pants that would fit you along with these boots," holding up a pair of knee-high black leather boots. "All of my father's shirts are too small. My father was big around the middle but not so large in the torso."  
  
Alucard assured her that what he wore now would suit him just fine. He gathered the various relics that he had shed along with his other clothing and put some around his neck and others in the pockets of the rather tight vinyl pants. He pulled on the leather boots to complete the outfit and looked at his faint reflection in the mirrored vanity in Doris' bedroom.  
  
His long, pale blonde hair formed a new cloak behind him. The black vinyl pants gleamed and set off his moon-pale skin. Relics hung on chains around his neck and made him look like...well, he thought that it was unique because the words "sexy bitch" had not entered his vocabulary yet, but they had entered Doris'.  
  
Doris cleared her throat, opening the door, and Alucard turned away from the mirror and followed her back downstairs where Maria had engaged in polite conversation with the vampire hunter and Dan. The conversation was promptly interrupted as Alucard entered the living room and into the sight of Maria, who stopped midsentence and gaped at Alucard. She then looked at the beautiful woodwork of the floorboards and blushed noticeably.  
  
The symbiote muttered imperceptibly, "Oh, for the love of God."  
  
"Wow, I must have good taste," Doris mused aloud. "This is the second time that someone has admired the wood flooring after I gave the other person new clothing."  
  
Alucard, gleaming in the sunlight, warned in his low voice, "This is not the time to be thinking such thoughts, Miss Lang. There are far more imprtant things to contemplate such as how to get into Castlevania."  
  
"Certainly, Alucard," D said, startling the other dhampire. The vampire hunter had remained so silent that it was a surprise when he spoke. "We will do that, but it was also important to reoutfit you and Maria. Your clothing would not have held up against attacks inside the castle."  
  
Alucard coolly replied, "I know what my home is like, vampire hunter. I have lived there before."  
  
"Indeed." It hurt D to be reminded after Alucard's statement that Dracula had married Alucard's mother, and to know that D was the bastard half-brother of this aristocratic dhampire. The symbiote was having an agonizing field day with D's mind at that moment with that information.  
  
"Well, what do we do?" Maria asked, trying to break the tension that had developed between the two dhampires. They needed to work together, but there was something that D was not telling them.  
  
Doris answered before either of the dhampires could reply and said, "We eat and think of a plan. 'No one ever thought of a good idea on an empty stomach,' my father used to say."  
  
Alucard thought to himself, 'And he's dead now. How much good did food do him when he died?'  
  
D picked up on the thought and remained silent. He did not want to give away his identity before he was able to lay his charges at the feet of his father in Castlevania.  
______________________________________________________________________  
  
A/N: I think that it has been established that I am a hot-blooded female. *S*   
  
Well, I should explain what the title is supposed to mean. I recently read 'De Anima' by Aristotle which means 'On the Soul'. I added the Vampira part so it supposedly means 'On the Soul of the Vampire'.  
  
I apologize as well for revising the chapter so soon. I just could not keep a straight face for the last part of the fic....after the vocabulary thing, it was all downhill (Laughing and blushing were the main effects).  
  
Andromache. 


	4. Chapter 3

De Anima Vampira  
Chapter 3  
by Andromache  
  
Legal disclaimer a-go-go:  
  
I lay no claim to the characters of D, Doris, and Dan who actually belong to Streamline Entertainment and Urban-Vision Entertainment. The same goes for Alucard and Maria, who belong to Konami. I just write the story.  
  
After an amazingly long time, I give you the next chapter. Sorry about that. Started writing porn and got distracted by it. Then I finally got a month off from three semesters of college in a row during which I refused to do much at all. I also apologize for the quality of this chapter. I know that I can do so much better. It is short as all get out as well, but I think that I need some time to work out Alucard's reaction. If you think that you have an idea, please tell me what it is and why. I could use the help now that I am back at college and will be staring at books and such for the next few months again.  
______________________________________________________________________  
  
After Maria found the strength to remove her eyes from the floor and Alucard discovered the fact that he could no longer move silently because of the vinyl material, the group met in the dining room to eat and discuss strategy.   
  
Dan sat down in one of the two chairs at the small, black square table that usually seated only himself and his sister at mealtimes. Doris busied herself in the kitchen itself, preparing ingredients for a local pasta dish. Maria sat down in the other chair after seeing that neither D nor Alucard was going to sit down in it themselves. Alucard stood at Maria's right shoulder, and D stood against the wall behind Dan, his dark blue cloak pulled loosely around his tall frame.   
  
Tracing a circular pattern on the table with the index finger of her right hand, Maria spoke first. "According to the last time that I was in the castle, Alucard told me that Castlevania is a creature of Chaos, and I decided that my memories are unreliable as a guide to walking through the castle."  
  
As she poured water into a medium-sized copper cooking pot, Doris asked, "Is there anything that we can rely on then, Alucard?"  
  
The dhampire replied slowly, "Castlevania does retain a certain semblance for the sanity of the dwellers. General areas remain, but the specific rooms do not."  
  
Dan piped up, "So we know that there will be places that you would recognize, Alucard. Finding your father ought to be easy then."  
  
Alucard shook his long pale blonde head and said, "Where my father would be changes. We might find him in his throne room if he is there or in his crypt of he is there. All in all, it depends on if he is at that location. We will have to explore all of the castle in order to find him."  
  
Somewhat bitterly, D said softly, "We still need to get into the castle though. If we stay here, then no good will ever be done."  
  
Maria said wryly, "You and Alucard seem to be fond of sounding cryptic and important. Passing moral judgements and all that. I'd think that you were brothers or something."  
  
If it were polite to do so, Alucard would have rolled his eyes. D merely leveled a cold look in her direction. Doris laughed silently as she waited for the water to boil. She leaned against the synthetic wood countertops and remarked, "I think that you could be right, Maria. I mean, they are about the same height and even resemble each other. D is also a dhampire as well."  
  
Dan looked at his hero and said excitedly, "Really?"  
  
Lifting one delicately arched eyebrow, Alucard asked in his polished voice, "Who is your father, D?"  
  
D reluctantly said, "My father is the same as yours. Count Dracula."  
  
The full humans in the kitchen gasped. Alucard reached into his right pocket and touched the Power of Sire magic weapon. A small shock of magical power leapt onto his fingertips. Alucard closed his eyes and contemplated this revelation. He had a brother now, a half-brother who was alive and standing in the same room as he was.   
  
D watched Alucard's expression shift on his face. His older brother had not said a thing since he had confessed that his father was also Alucard's father. What would the aristocrat say to him now?  
______________________________________________________________________  
Author's note:  
  
That is the quandary right there, ladies and gentleman. I have no idea at the moment as to what Alucard's reaction would be and how to keep him in character as well.  
  
Help.  
  
Andromache 


	5. Chapter 4

De Anima Vampira  
Chapter 4 (after a good long time.)  
By Andromache  
  
Oh Lord. I really have to get these out more often. However, this one is out, and you should enjoy it as much as possible.  
  
Once again, I do not own the characters potrayed herein. Somebody else, who is very rich, owns them. Sue me not.   
  
______________________________________________________________________  
  
Everyone held their breath as Alucard mulled over the new information just spoken to him by the tall, rangy man sitting down at the table. D was his half-brother. A person who, like himself, by all rights should not even be alive.   
  
Alucard had failed. His father had won. His accursed bloodline still existed in the world after ten thousand years of sleep. How the hell did this happen?, Alucard wondered. He should have woken up when his father did, but at the time that this other bastard get of a vampire had been conceived, he'd been sleeping with Maria beside him for a hundred years already. He cursed inwardly as he realized that he had failed.   
  
"You...bastard. You are living proof that I failed to defeat my father! Or should I say our father?" Alucard spat at D, who sat at the table mute and noncommital to any expression. "We are both evil and unnatural beings. Either we both should sleep for eternity or die for our sin of merely existing. Father had gone too far in his lusts. How could he defile the memory of my mother? How could he still be alive? I don't understand this."  
  
Alucard's pale gold eyes flashed with anger as he stormed out of the house, leaving Doris and Dan in shock and Maria nearly in tears. D remained mute.   
  
"I'm sure he's just upset. That's all," Doris soothed, rubbing Maria's shoulder. Maria fought to keep tears from streaming down her cheeks.  
  
"I've never seen him that upset, not even when we were in Castlevania and he had to fight his father," Maria sniffed, leaning on Doris' shoulder.   
  
"It's understandable," D said evenly, as if he spoke in no other tone of voice. "I am his bastard half-brother, and I am also evidence that evil still exists in this world."  
  
"And that's any excuse to treat you like that? He ought to embrace you as a brother, not run out of the house," Doris said, her blue eyes blazing in a show of defiance against Alucard's actions. Her hands rested on Maria's shoulders and tightened as D replied.  
  
"Imagine finding out now that the father that you hated, who was responsible for the deaths of thousands, was still alive. That is awful enough, but then you find out that your father disgraced the memory of your sainted mother by whoring around while you slept, oblivious to the world and his transgressions."  
  
"Whoring around? D, that is such a harsh term," Maria protested. She seemed distressed enough by Alucard's words without D justifying them. Her doe brown eyes were filling with tears as she clutched Doris' hand, which was on her shoulder, with her own.   
  
Dan interjected at this moment. He had watched blue fire erupt in his sister's eyes, pained sorrow in Maria's, and, well, nothing in D's nearly black ones.   
  
"Stop it!" the boy cried, his own worry evident in his voice, and all eyes focused on him. He sat uncomfortably under the scrutiny until he continued.  
  
"D, Alucard is your brother, and I know that if I did not have Sis, I would die of loneliness. Here is someone who would understand what it means to be a dhampire. He already knows what it's like. Maria loves him, and I bet you could, too."  
  
"Not in the same way, Dan," the symbiote muttered. D mentally hushed it.  
  
The hunter stood up, his imposing height casting a lengthy shadow over the wooden floor, and announced coolly, "I will take your advice into account, Doris, and I will attempt to talk to Alucard and see if I can reconcile with him. However, the matter of our father is becoming more and more pressing. Dusk is already upon us, and Dracula's monsters will be roaming the area outside Castlevania. We should hurry."  
  
Dan gasped, "Without a plan?"  
  
"We'll have to. We don't have much choice otherwise."  
  
Maria lifted her hand from Doris' and swept her hair back from her eyes. She murmured something about looking at the sunset and exited the house.  
  
She saw Alucard gazing at the sunset as well, the light making his golden eyes shine, and his silvery hair fluttered in the air. Her breath caught in her throat when she saw the angry expression on his face.  
  
"Mari-ka, how could this have happened, my own father alive again and a half-brother born while I was asleep?" The anger swiftly turned to regret. Alucard's countenance fell as he considered the past years that had flown while they slept inside his tomb.   
  
She stepped forward, a little awkward in the long trousers, and embraced Alucard. Maria ran her bare hands up to his shoulderblades and lay her head on his chest. She felt the dhampire embrace her in return, placing his delicate hands on the small of her back.  
  
"Please, Alucard, your father is awake now. We don't have much time," she pled quietly.  
  
"Less than you think!"  
  
Alucard swiftly brought his head up and glared at the new arrival, Death, one of his father's servants.   
  
"You won't succeed this time!" it cackled.  
______________________________________________________________________  
A/N: Please don't hurt me! I had nasty block on this! 


	6. Chapter 5

De Anima Vampira  
Chapter 5 *gasp!*  
By Andromache  
  
Just don't hurt me. Please.  
  
Once again, I do not own the characters potrayed herein. Somebody else, who is very rich, owns them. Sue me not.   
  
______________________________________________________________________  
  
As frustrating as it was to know that his father had propagated yet another half-breed bastard dhampire on the world, the fact that Dracula was awake and well enough to send minions to either kill his own children or keep them busy while some other ulterior motive was carried out just pushed Alucard over the edge a tad.  
  
"Did you know about him, Death?" Alucard growled, seemingly into Maria's golden brown hair.  
  
"Your little brother? Well, yes, he has been a thorn in the side of vampires for years with the damned hunting of his. Related to every one of the vampires that he has slaughtered over the last twelve millennia or so." Death grinned slowly, realizing that the existence of the brother angered Alucard past the point of quick response. The unearthly being dashed forward and swung its massive scythe at their necks, missing only because Maria had the presence of mind to duck and pull Alucard down with her.   
  
They landed on their sides, getting their borrowed clothing already dirty in the dusty ground in front of the main house of the Lang ranch. Alucard grabbed Maria by the shoulders and ordered, "Get the vampire hunter!"  
  
She nodded mutely and scrambled up off the ground and into the house, presumably to inform D of Death and that they needed help.  
  
Alucard sorely missed having any weaponry hidden on him save for the magical artifacts that were too precious to use on Death right now. He would have to beat Death with his bare hands and maybe a few balls of hellfire.  
  
Death advanced on him again, swinging his terrible scythe. Alucard blocked it by grabbing the staff and raked Death in its eyeless sockets, wrenching its head painfully to the side. Death howled in pain and took back control of his weapon, renewing his attack on the eldest son of his Master. Alucard dodged the menacing blade just as a sharp sword rocketed through the air and then through Death's torso. A bolt of lightning crashed down onto the sword, electrocuting Death where it was. Alucard twisted around to see D standing impassively on the porch with Doris and Dan. Maria stood next to him, her hands clasped in prayer and her eyes shut in concentration.   
Alucard furrowed his own brow in confusion. Had Maria ever demonstrated this in Castlevania some twelve thousand years ago. No matter. It would come in handy if they ever needed a holy attack against Dracula, and that was guaranteed to come when they entered the newest incarnation of Castlevania.  
  
Death wheezed, "Not so fast, young Masters. This is not over." Death disapparated into the air, letting D's massive sword fall to the ground with a dull clang.  
  
Alucard muttered darkly, "As it was, is, and ever shall be."  
  
"We should go to this castle," D remarked bluntly.   
  
Alucard glared at him icily. Being an elder brother was not the activity he wanted to engage in at the moment.   
  
"We will go to Castlevania this evening if you like. The sun is nearly completely set, and Father's monsters will be roaming the castle and surrounding land with renewed vigor. Does that sound like something we should rush into right now?" Alucard said in a tightly controlled voice.   
  
Maria interrupted, "We go at midnight. Now we should gather any supplies we might need inside Castlevania."  
  
D and Alucard admonished at the same time, "No, you are not!"  
  
Doris shot them both a dark look. "You know how skilled I am, D, and Maria just demonstrated what an asset she would be to us in the castle. Plus she has experience from being in it once."  
  
Dan piped up, "Do I get to come, Sis?"  
  
"Nice try. Guard the ranch. Someone has to watch it while I am gone."  
  
He stuck his tongue out at her.   
  
****  
While Doris and Dan hitched up the cyborg horse to the wagon to run into town for last minute supplies, D, Alucard, and Maria each had a moment to think their own thoughts.  
  
Am I truly ready for this?  
  
Will it ever end?  
  
Will it ever give us up to the fate of our own lives?   
  
****  
  
Review and tell me if you like how the story is going! I like reviews more than stalkers hiding in the bushes planning my demise if I do not write for a while. ;) - Andromache 


End file.
